Customer Reviews

Jewish Philosophy: An Historical Introduction

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If you do not want to fill your head with misinformation and and very odd interpretations of classic texts, do not read this book. For example: Samuelson manages to devote the first 77 pages of his book to Biblical Judaism, yet he never finds time to mention that the Hebrew Scriptures have anything to say about ethical concerns such as justice and charity. His treatment of Rabbinical Judaism is similarly botched, including obvious misunderstandings of the best-known Rabbinic texts. (Show a rabbinical student the discussion on page 103 of the very first section of the Talmud, and check out the reaction you get!) Although the book is suppossed to be written for beginnners, when Samuelson finally gets to Medieval Jewish philosophy, he starts throwing around enough unexplained Aristotelian concepts to make your head swim. Many of Samuelson's interpretations are frankly bizarre. If you already know the material, you might find them oddly interesting in the way that it would be interesting to see someone claim that the Matrix is really about the 1954 World Series. Otherwise, you will come away from this book all set to say things that will make you sound like a crack-pot.

The same material is covered with much greater accuracy and authority in Julius Guttmann's classic *Philosophies of Judaism*. For the medieval period, I would suggest Colette Sirat's *A History of Jewish Philosopy in the Middle Ages.* If you are looking for a short, genuinely popular yet well-founded account of Maimonides' philosophy, which also tries to demonstrate its relevance for contemporary religion, see Kenneth Seeskin's *Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed*.

This is an excellent book to examine Jewish philosophy through the ages. It looks at different philosophers' views, who were the main influences, and how Jewish philosophy developed through different periods, centuries...It even questions where Jewish philosophy may go into the future with science issues and such taken into account.

This book is intended as an introductory text for college students learning about Judaism. It is cogent, concise and easy to read even with minimal knowledge of Judaism. I recommend this book highly without reservation.